Annie sent this in:

Tough to pick a winner in the current administration, but it’s hard to argue with this!

Yes, Janet Napolitano, DEMOCRAT from Arizona, for listing Tea Party protesters, southern Christians, and returning members of the military as potential domestic terrorists and right-wing extremists. You are a dumbass.

For renaming the ongoing “War on Terror” as an “Overseas Contingency”. You are a dumbass.

For dropping the word “terrorism” from the government lexicon. You are a dumbass.

For saying that the terrorist attack on 9/11/01 was really a “man-caused disaster”. You are a dumbass.
 
For claiming that ILLEGAL immigration is not a crime. You are a dumbass.

For declaring that the Canadian border was more dangerous than the Mexican border.  You are a dumbass.

For stating that the Muslim Terrorist attacks on 9/11 came from Canada. You are a dumbass.

For allowing the spread of Swine Flu by not testing travelers from Swine Flu ground zero in Mexico. You are a dumbass.

For comparing a fence along the US southern border to the Berlin Wall. You are a dumbass.

For claiming that Homeland Security’s “system worked” when all could see it failed. You are a dumbass.

For walking back your “system worked” comment with “system failed.” You are a dumbass.

So congratulations Janet Incompetano!

You are the official 2009 Dumbass of the Year!

Deserving of awards and accolades … to have failed so much in one short year, you are the winning loser!

One federal official was conspicuous by her absence at a recent House Homeland Security Committee hearing — the secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano.

The Jan. 27 hearing was called to examine the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253, but Napolitano sent Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Jane Holl Lute to testify in her place.

Democrats on the committee openly expressed their displeasure with Napolitano as the hearing proceeded, CNSNews reported.

Rep. Chris Carney of Pennsylvania said during his question period: “I am very dismayed that the secretary herself wasn’t here. I mean, it’s probably fair to ask, ‘Where the hell is Secretary Napolitano?’”

Rep. Jane Harman of California declared: “This is the committee with primary jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security. She is the Secretary of Homeland Security. She is in Washington, D.C. She was invited to testify at this very important hearing, and she should have been here.”

Two days after the Christmas Day bombing attempt, Napolitano had told CNN that “the system worked,” referring to security measures. According to CNSNews, Republicans on the committee believe Napolitano did not appear at the hearing because she did not want to field questions about that comment.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said the committee had first been told that Napolitano could not attend the hearing because she would be out of the country, then discovered that she was in fact in Washington but would not attend anyway.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one nodding off Wednesday night.

Jim sent this in:

A federal grand jury in Arizona today began hearing a federal prosecutors’ allegations that the popular Maricopa County sheriff, Joe Arpaio, abused his authority. Sheriff Arpaio garnered national attention with his tough immigration enforcement, and to many Americans is known as “America’s Sheriff.” 

Jim sent this in:

Amidst continued calls for her to resign or be removed from her post as a result of her past statements, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano followed the long-awaited press briefing by President Barack Obama with her own laundry list of anti-terrorism recommendations.

While the President’s televised comments revealed no surprises — and in fact, disappointed many in the news media and in law enforcement — Napolitano’s press briefing provided some insight. Sadly, prior to his speech, the White House spin doctors characterized Obama’s impending announcement as “shocking” for Americans, but there was neither shock nor substance in the President’s flowery presentation, according to several law enforcement sources.

Immediately following Obama’s briefing, the politically embattled Secretary Napolitano joined White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security John Brennan to announce several recommendations DHS has made to the President for improving the technology and procedures used to protect aircraft and travelers from acts of terrorism.

Napolitano outlined five recommendations DHS will pursue to upgrade aviation security.  President Obama had ordered security reviews following the attempted terrorist attack on December 25, 2009, including recommendations from the intelligence and security communities. 

“The attempted attack on Christmas Day is a powerful illustration that terrorists will go to great lengths to try to defeat the security measures that have been put in place since Sept. 11, 2001,”said Secretary Napolitano.

“These recommendations will strengthen aviation security—at home and abroad—through new partnerships, technology and law enforcement efforts,” she said.

Secretary Napolitano provided the following recommendations:

• Re-evaluate and modify the criteria and process used to create terrorist watch lists—including adjusting the process by which names are added to the “No-Fly” and “Selectee” lists.
• Establish a partnership on aviation security between DHS and the Department of Energy and its National Laboratories in order to develop new and more effective technologies to deter and disrupt known threats and proactively anticipate and protect against new ways by which terrorists could seek to board an aircraft.
• Accelerate deployment of advanced imaging technology to provide greater explosives detection capabilities — and encourage foreign aviation security authorities to do the same — in order to identify materials such as those used in the attempted Christmas attack. The Transportation Security Administration currently has 40 machines deployed throughout the United States, and plans to deploy at least 300 additional units in 2010.
• Strengthen the presence and capacity of aviation law enforcement — by deploying law enforcement officers from across DHS to serve as Federal Air Marshals to increase security aboard U.S.-bound flights.
• Work with international partners to strengthen international security measures and standards for aviation security.

Secretary Napolitano’s recommendations come in addition to the Department’s immediate actions following the attempted attack on Dec. 25, 2009 — including enhanced security measures at domestic airports and new international security directives that mandate enhanced screening of every individual flying into the United States from or through nations that are State Sponsors of Terrorism or other countries of interest and the majority of all passengers traveling on U.S.-bound flights.

The President’s speech and Napolitano’s statement met with mixed — mostly partisan – reaction. While Obama supporters were quick to herald his briefing and actions, many Americans were less enthusiastic.

“It is unacceptable to just claim human error and systematic problems, but not assign responsibility except to say ‘the buck stops here.’  The blame does rest with the President for creating an atmosphere in his Administration where no one wants to offend anyone – not even a terrorist,” said Danny Gonzalez, director of communications for KeepAmericaSafe.org, a grassroots organization

“Obama said that as a country we would not have a siege mentality and we wouldn’t hide behind the walls of suspicion and mistrust. This is ignoring the fact that America is under siege, and we have bad people at our borders trying to get.  Most importantly, visiting the United States is a privilege not a right, and we shouldn’t be afraid to deny people that privilege if there is any chance they pose a threat,” said Gonzalez.

Homeland Security Secretary George Clooney Janet Napolitano on airline security breach, safety of air travel.

Jim sent this in:

On Christmas Day, a Nigerian man claiming to be part of the al-Qaeda terrorist group attempted to destroy a Northwest Airlines aircraft on its final approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Christmas Day. The suspect was successful with placing a destructive device on that aircraft.

“President Obama has filled his cabinet with left-wing ideologues who are unqualified for the positions they hold. You have a former smear-master [Leon Panetta] as CIA Director, a Clinton retread [Eric Holder] heading the Justice Department, and others who are Internationalists and worry more about the United Nations than their own nation,” warns Baker.

“Napolitano mirrors the feelings of Obama and [Speaker of the House] Nancy Pelosi — that border security is ‘Un-American,” said veteran cop Lieutenant Stephan Rodgers from New Jersey.

“In fact, one of Napolitano’s first orders was for ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) agents to stop workplace inspections to arrest illegal workers and identity thieves,” said Lt. Rodgers.

More than one conservative congressman is concerned over the Homeland Security Secretary’s brief track record. She has been involved in what must be characterized as controversy on more than one occasion.

First, during her testimony on Capitol Hill, Napolitano noticeably failed to use the words terrorist or radical Islam even once while testifying, in spite of the fact her very job was created as a result of terrorist attacks perpetrated by radical Islamic terrorists on September 11, 2001.

The former Arizona governor has been slow to respond to the violence and chaos that exists at the US-Mexican border and continues to hesitate in dealing with an out-of-control immigration problem. Instead, Napolitano pointed to the US-Canadian border as cause for concern, going so far as to say the 9-11 terrorists entered the United States from Canada.

Napolitano subsequently was forced to apologize to the Canadian government and had to correct her erroneous statement. The fact that the nation’s top terrorism fighter didn’t know from where the men — who committed the worst terrorist attack in US history — entered this nation did not instill must confidence in her knowledge and ability.

Then Secretary Napolitano’s department released a report characterizing war veterans from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan as possible right-wing extremists. That same report also cast suspicion on American citizens who oppose abortion and gun control, or those who oppose the federal government’s intrusion into the business of individual states or citizens.

Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) gave the following statement in response to ongoing controversy over the Department of Homeland Security’s recent report on right-wing extremists and potential domestic terrorism, as well as Secretary Napolitano’s failure to appropriately apologize for the offensive assertions made in the report:

“The outrageous, unsubstantiated, politically-loaded DHS report on ‘Right-Wing Extremism,’ shows a stunning lack of understanding of the real and imminent threats America is truly facing,” said Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ), who is a member of the Committee on Armed Services, Strategic Forces Subcommittee, Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee, Military Readiness Subcommittee, Committee on the Judiciary, Constitution Subcommittee, and is ranking member on the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.

“It is also a disgraceful insult to the true heroes of our country. If veterans, pro-life and states’ rights advocates and those who seek to protect the Constitutional rights of themselves and their fellow Americans are at higher risk for becoming domestic terrorists, then over 80% of the people in my District can be categorized as a potential national security threat,” said Rep. Franks.

Franks also noted that it would be very interesting to see what taxpayer-funded resources went into producing “this disgraceful report and what documents and evidence they are using to justify it.”

Franks and other conservatives believe that using the vast and powerful resources of the Department of Homeland Security to target and ostracize political opposition, as it would appear is being done, sets an incredibly dangerous precedent and it’s something America’s federal government should have no part of.

Franks said, “The report claims the election of an “African American president” and the downturn in the economy has caused ‘right-wing extremism’ and could possibly even radicalize our veterans.”

“To say that the noble and patriotic men and women who wear this nation’s uniform and have laid their lives on the line to protect their country are now one of the greatest potential domestic security dangers to our country is so staggeringly irrational and insulting that I am unable to find the words to express it,” he said.

Franks went on to say that both President Obama and Secretary Napolitano “owe it to our veterans and the rest of the American people to immediately and unequivocally disavow and repudiate the preposterous conclusions in this report, and they should also seriously consider firing those who wrote it.”

Franks an other Americans believe that the President and Homeland Security Secretary have already waited far too long and the explanations and platitudes the American people have received thus far are understandably being perceived as half-hearted and insincere.

“Every day they continue to delay brings increasing encouragement and amusement to the real terrorist enemies of this nation,” Franks concluded.

While serving as Governor of Arizona, when she declared a state of emergency in Arizona, following the lead of another Democrat governor — Bill Richardson of New Mexico — Governor Napolitano spent millions on her deployment of National Guard troops on the Mexican border. Political analysts believe she declared the emergency in order to criticize the Bush Administration as did Governor Richardson.

In fact, Gov. Richardson declared a state of emergency and then deployed a whopping 54 New Mexico National Guard soldiers to aid the beleaguered local law enforcement officers. One police chief said he’s seen more guardsmen deployed for a snowstorm than for Richardson’s “state of emergency.”

Supporters of tough border security said the new bill would have provided Arizona with an opportunity to start gaining control of its vast border problems by providing a second layer of enforcement to catch the tens of thousands of immigrants who slip past federal agents each year.

Republican Senator Barbara Leff of Paradise Valley, who proposed the bill, said the governor has painted herself as tough on illegal immigration by declaring a state of emergency at Arizona’s border, but has taken little action to back up her rhetoric, according to the Washington Examiner.

“I don’t think the governor wants to do anything about this problem,” Leff said. She said the bill would have been a means to detain illegal immigrants until federal agents can pick them up.

The Democratic governor, accused by her Republican critics of being soft on immigration, has vetoed other immigration bills from the GOP-majority Legislature within the past year, including a proposal to give police the power to enforce federal immigration laws. She’s also provided services for illegal aliens and is a proponent of drivers licenses for illegals.